Carnegie Mellon University

When The World is Sick: Producing Art Amidst a Pandemic, Late-stage Capitalism, and Beyond

May 22, 2020

When The World is Sick

Producing Art Amidst a Pandemic, Late-stage Capitalism, and Beyond

For this project folkLAB selected four artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to participate in a virtual, anonymous, exquisite corpse based on a prompt about the intersection of wellness, capitalism, and art production. Each artist had one day to create their artwork.

Following the art-making, the artists were introduced to each other, viewed the artworks, and engaged in a virtual roundtable discussion about the process of creating remotely, collaboratively, and healthily – while under quarantine– facilitated by curator and folkLAB founder Abigail Lis-Perlis.

FolkLAB's When the World is Sick website includes recording of a zoom roundtable, images/explanation of the pieces by the below artists and a short curatorial essay by Lis-Perlis.

Visit 'the When The World is Sick' website


abigail-lis-perlis.jpgCo-curator and Director

Abigail Lis-Perlis is a theatre-maker and an advocate for equity in the arts (and all things). They founded folkLAB, an interdisciplinary, devised, performance project that creates new work with under-represented artists, in 2017. They received funding from The Opportunity Fund and The Pittsburgh Foundation to continue that work into 2020/2021.

Visit her webiste, folkLAB

Follow her on Instagram

(Photo: Abigail circa 1995)


Participating Artists

rachel-greene.jpgRachel Greene is a writer, performer, educator and spoken word poet who uses the power of personal stories and creative group process to foster social transformation. She has competed in the National Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam. She spent a season with the Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble in Port Townsend, WA, practicing Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre.


nicole-gallagher.jpgnicole gallagher: she/her/bitch/bruja media/activist/working girl/teller of tales/scrappy and upstanding student of life.
 
Look for  “Stories in the Time of” events on Facebook
Instagram handle @storiesinthetimeof


samir-gangwani.jpgSamir Gangwani is an interdisciplinary performance artist, curator, and educator who focuses on igniting conversations on disenfranchised communities, mindfulness explorations, and action-based scores for self-care and emotional support. She believes we can combat discrimination that occurs throughout the world by providing safe spaces for people of different backgrounds to communicate and collaborate. Gangwani’s work has been featured at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Queens Museum, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Fuse Factory Electronics and Digital Arts Lab, and Public Space One.

Visit his: InstagramWebsiteBandcamp

(photo credit: Adrienne Cassel)


7d.jpg7D is an experimental composer, musician, performer, visual artist, and educator. Their work focuses on their experiences with psychosis and disability.

Find them on: YouTube

(photo credit Johnny Arlett)